Group to build affordable rentals

October 27, 2002|By Jeanette Almada, Special to the Tribune.

A non-profit development partnership will build 86 affordable rental apartments on vacant land between Ohio and Huron Streets and between Albany and Kedzie Avenues over the next two years. The development site is surrounded by single-family homes, as well as two- and three-flat residential properties.

The Erie Cooperative Ltd. Partnership, which consists of the Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp. and the National Equity Fund, will build 18 two- and three-story buildings on the 18 vacant parcels. Humboldt Construction Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bickerdike, will act as general contractor for the project. Landon Bone Baker is the architect.

The developer worked with Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) and local community groups to gain support for the project.

"Most members who live around the site have owned their home for 30 years or more," said Jennette Moton, vice president of the K.A.F.T. 4 Unity block Club (Kedzie, Albany, Franklin, Troy). "The apartments [which will be built on land that has been vacant for at least 25 years] will improve the physical appearance of the neighborhood and will draw new residents who might join our efforts to spark some improvements for the area," she said.

Part of the project, 48 units to go up on six sites on Huron between Albany and Troy Street, is being processed as a planned development because those sites are contiguous. The remainder are scattered. The planned development portion of the project was approved by the Plan Commission earlier this month.

"The mix of two-story and three-story buildings will have one-bedroom to four-bedroom apartments," said Dena Al-Khatib, development supervisor at Bickerdike Redevelopment in a phone interview last week. She said the apartments will range from 800 to 1,500 square feet and rents, from about $450 to $725 a month. "Those prices are our current estimate," Al-Khatib explained. "The parcels range from very large to standard city residential 50-by-125-foot lots. Most of them are city owned but we purchased six parcels from private owners. We expect that the city owned lots will be transferred to us for $1 each when we close in the financing for the project, about February next year," Al-Khatib said.

Much of the financing for the $17 million project will come from the city and from the Federal Housing Authority. "Part of it will come from a $700,000 FHA-insured loan," Al-Khatib said.

Al-Khatib said construction will begin next spring and completion is slated for December 2004.